


ONESHOT: The Last of the Sons

by specimen



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Forsaken, Oneshot, and not just the men, but the women and the children too, every single one of them, i killed them, i killed them all, no but seriously this is sad, they're dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:28:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22167130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/specimen/pseuds/specimen
Summary: A quick oneshot based around my fic, "Forsaken." This is from Chi-Chi's point of view from the start of Lord Frieza's conquest of earth 20 years prior to the events of the fic.
Relationships: Chi-Chi/Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Videl Satan/Son Gohan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	ONESHOT: The Last of the Sons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RValle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RValle/gifts).



> Everything here is canon to the "[Forsaken](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19024972/chapters/45182998)" story.

It had taken two months, but Chi-Chi finally believed her husband was really gone for good this time. 

When Frieza first arrived, no one had expected much more than the usual. Obviously, he was terrifying. Obviously, he was powerful. But like so many that came before, he was just another threat to be dealt with — just another reason her husband continued to train day in and day out at the cost of spending time with his family.

Then, when his armies rolled over cities and he continued to slaughter people by the thousands, it became clearer and clearer that something wasn’t right. Goku should’ve saved them by now. He should’ve stopped this before so many lives were lost. During the second week of his conquest, a woman named Captain Almone appeared on every television screen across the world to demand the capture of anyone associated with Son Goku. Their images were flashed everywhere they went.

At first, they hid at Kame House with Master Roshi and Oolong. She had what remained of her family — Gohan, Videl, Pan, and Goten. Her father wasn’t answering any phone calls, and she had to work to hide her worry. Bulma and her kids joined them not long after, along with Yamcha and Tien. On the third day they were there, another broadcast came through, this time a public execution of Bulma’s parents. It was terrible, having to witness that. She and Bulma didn’t always get along, but they were still friends. She did her best to comfort her, and Videl too when the news came that Buu and Mr. Satan had been killed as well. At the very least, they’d had the good sense not to leave the TV on after what happened to Bulma’s parents, so she was spared that horror.

They left Kame House shortly thereafter, traveling east by boat to Gengoro Island. On the way there, Chi-Chi cut Goten’s hair short enough that it held no distinct shape; he’d always looked so much like his father, his hair especially. It used to be something she was proud of, but now it could’ve been a death sentence. Neither were very happy with the arrangement. Once they arrived in Penguin Village, they’d used what money Bulma had on her to secret themselves away into a series of apartments. Yamcha, Puar, Tien, and Chiaotzu stayed on one side while the others stayed on the other. It was the first time any of them had slept on something other than old bedrolls in months. Even so, she couldn’t get a decent night’s sleep.

Chi-Chi woke in the middle of the night to the sound of a yelling toddler. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard it, and it wouldn’t be the last between Pan and Bulla. She made her way to the kitchen where the sound was coming from to find Bulma sitting at the small round table, desperately trying to calm her screaming daughter. Bulla was still just a tiny thing but there was no denying that she took after her mother in nearly everything from her looks to her attitude. Though right now, she seemed to be trying to channel her father; her chubby arms were crossed over her chest as she shouted angrily, twisting her body away from Bulma every time she tried to touch her.

“No, mommy, no! Won’t! _Won’t!_ ” Bulla insisted. “I want daddy! Daddy, daddy, where are you?!”

“You stop it right now, Bulla!” Bulma scolded. “It is time for bed. I won’t tell you again!”

“No! No, I want daddy! Not you! _Daddy!_ ” Bulla shouted. Bulma looked very much to be at her wit’s end when Chi-Chi finally decided to make her presence known. She gathered herself up and marched right over to them, then stopped in front of Bulla and wagged her finger in her face.

“Now you listen here, young lady! That’s no way to talk to your mother, so pipe down and do as she says, do you hear me? You’re waking people up with all this noise!”

Bulla stopped screaming long enough to look up at Chi-Chi’s stern face. Her big blue eyes searched her a moment before they suddenly welled up and she burst into tears. She turned and threw her arms around her mother’s neck, and sobbed like no other child had sobbed before. Bulma let out a sigh and set about comforting her. “I appreciate you trying,” she said. “She’s just so stubborn sometimes. Honestly, when she decides she wants something she just won’t let it go.”

“That sounds familiar,” Chi-Chi commented. “I’m going to make tea. Might as well since I’m awake.”

“She misses Vegeta,” Bulma said. Her voice sounded strained like she was trying to keep it steady. She had Bulla in her lap and was rocking from side to side slowly, one hand stroking through Bulla’s hair as she did. “We all do, but...I guess I keep thinking he’s going to just walk in here like nothing’s wrong and tell us how ridiculous we all were for being worried.”

Chi-Chi nodded, though she couldn’t say she felt the same way. Goku wasn’t the most thoughtful person all the time, but he wasn’t so negligent that he wouldn’t have at least _told them_ that he was alive and everything would be alright. If he was really out there, they’d have known by now. “I told Goku not to go training. I mean, they just got back from training with Whis, for crying out loud. How much training do they really _need_? I bet he was just avoiding harvest.”

“What I want to know is why the chamber? Didn’t they already do that pretty recently?” Bulma scoffed. “I’ve tried to figure out a way to get a hold of Whis but nothing worked. Not even Jaco’s answering! You know, I can’t help thinking that maybe something went wrong. Maybe they’re trapped in there.”

“Gohan said Piccolo already tried to get them out,” Chi-Chi said. “They’re either not in there, or...”

She didn’t finish the sentence. Neither seemed interested in discussing the possibilities of what happened, and Bulla had thankfully fallen asleep by the time the tea was made. She still whimpered softly as she slept curled up in Bulma’s lap, but at least she was quiet. The two women sat in relative silence as they drank their tea, both unwilling to start a conversation. By morning, despite having barely slept at all, both were hard at work with their respective duties. Bulma settled Bulla down on the couch after wrapping her in a blanket, then continued work on a new dragon radar. Chi-Chi had breakfast ready just as Gohan came down the stairs with Goten close behind.

“Try to keep it down. Bulma just got Bulla to sleep,” she cautioned and gestured toward the couch. Gohan nodded.

“That girl’s got some lungs on her. Pan was worried,” he said, wearily. He dished up three bowls and then excused himself upstairs. Videl had taken her father’s loss hard, so it didn’t surprise Chi-Chi that she hadn’t come down yet.

“Thanks for breakfast, mom,” Goten said. She glanced his way and he offered a bright smile. Even with his new haircut, he still looked so much like his father. He took his bowl into the living room and sat down on the couch beside Bulla, who stirred awake just as Trunks reached the bottom of the stairs. She’d started to fuss again when Goten offered her the rest of his bowl, which seemed to quiet her quick enough. He pat her on the head, hopped off the couch and joined Chi-Chi in the kitchen to help her clean up.

“Aren’t you still hungry?” Chi-Chi asked. Goten shook his head and smiled warmly at her.

“Nope! I still had some snacks on me from Kame House,” he said. “I thought since there’s so many of us that it’d be better if I only eat what I need.”

Chi-Chi smiled. He must’ve overheard Gohan talking about having to start rationing their food soon. “That’s thoughtful of you, Goten. Still, you should eat more. I made plenty, so don’t you worry about it.”

“If you’re not gonna have any more, then I’m getting seconds,” Trunks interrupted groggily. “Thanks, Mrs. Son. Any idea where my mom is?”

“I think she went outside. She’s working on that new dragon radar,” Chi-Chi said. Trunks nodded and returned to the couch, scooping some of his breakfast into the bowl Goten left behind for Bulla. She realized he wasn’t getting seconds for himself, but rather trying to ration as if he really thought they’d run out. They both must’ve overheard Gohan, then. Chi-Chi sighed and walked over with the pot of rice and scooped more into his bowl, then pointed at him with the rice paddle. “Don’t worry about food! I’m the one who cooks it and if I say there’s enough, there’s enough, got it?”

“Y-Yes, ma’am,” he said.

She helped herself to breakfast when Gohan reappeared with Pan in his arms, and she smiled when she saw Chi-Chi. “Baba, look! Look!” She balled her hand into a tiny fist and smacked the side of Gohan’s face. He reacted as if she’d nearly knocked his head off, pretending to stumble and letting out a loud yelp. Pan let out a delighted squeal and yelled, “I beat you, papa! I beat you, I win!” Chi-Chi used to desperately hope it was just a phase, but the thought crossed her mind that she would probably need to know how to fight if Frieza was really here to stay.

“That’s great, Pan,” she said, forcing a smile. “Really, really great.”

The next few days passed without incident. They kept their heads down and made sure everyone remained indoors for the most part. Bulma continued work on her dragon radar, while Gohan and Videl started training in the backyard. It was like a fire had lit itself somewhere inside Videl; after a day of isolating herself, she emerged with renewed purpose and a fierce determination to fight. They eventually took a break and went inside to relax while the girls and Goten stayed in the back.

Chi-Chi was busy with dishwashing when she heard an angry scream from one of the girls. She ran out to find Goten struggling to hold Pan back, who was yelling at a red-faced, tear-stained Bulla. The two were normally the best of friends, but right now it looked like the feeling was only one-sided.

“What on earth is going on here?” Chi-Chi demanded. 

“They were playing and then, I don’t know — they just started yelling!” Goten said. Gohan came running out with Videl a second later. “Sorry! I don’t know what happened! I looked away for just a second!”

“Bulla!” Pan yelled. “We gotta!”

It only made Bulla scream louder and stomp her feet. An aura of energy had started building around her, but it didn’t seem very threatening. “NO! I won’t! Won’t, won’t, _won’t!_ I want daddy, not you!”

“Calm down, Bulla, it’s okay!” Videl said, crouching down in front of her. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

If Videl could understand the babbling meltdown that erupted from that little girl, Chi-Chi would’ve been genuinely impressed. Regardless if that was the case or not, Videl gently shushed her and led her back inside to find Bulma. Goten released Pan, who looked up at Gohan indignantly. 

“Papa, she’s gotta!” she insisted. “She’s gotta train!”

“Oh, Pan,” he said, bending down to look at her directly. “Is that what happened? You were trying to train Bulla?” Pan nodded, her fists balled and held up.

“I’ll do it!” she exclaimed.

He chuckled to himself and shook his head. “You know, I think she would rather play with dolls.”

“We can find you some dolls,” Chi-Chi offered quickly. “Or I can make a couple! Then you two can play like proper little girls! What do you say, Pan? Would you like that?”

Pan made a face and shook her head. “No, thank you. No dolls, baba.” Gohan smiled fondly and scooped her up.

“No dolls then. Come on, let’s go take a nap. Then I’ll train with you, okay?” Gohan kissed her cheek as he carried her away, and Goten moved to stand by his mother.

“Girls are really weird,” he mumbled. Chi-Chi only nodded her agreement and privately lamented that of course it would be Bulma to get the girl who liked dolls and dresses and all the things she had so wished Pan would like. At the very least, she was happy her granddaughter wasn’t as prone to crying. Plus, Pan was much sweeter when she wanted to be, and it looked like she was on her way to being stronger too.

Later that day, Bulma announced proudly that she’d completed her dragon radar. All she needed was help gathering the dragon balls and then they could undo everything Frieza had done. Yamcha and Tien volunteered to help however they could, while Gohan and Videl argued over whether or not both of them should go. In the end, Videl reluctantly remained behind while Gohan departed with the others. Goten and Trunks argued their little heads off until they were effectively shut down by everyone.

Chi-Chi kept herself busy with as much as she could. Cooking, mending clothes, looking after the girls — whatever she could do to stop thinking about the void her husband’s absence left behind. It was so different from the other times he was gone. It’d never felt so lonely, so thoroughly cold before. The last time he’d died, she could still tell he was there with them in some way. Now it was like he was just...gone. But Bulma would find the dragon balls and everything would be fixed. Just like always.

Except not this time. Bulma and Gohan returned less than a week later, both bruised and covered in scrapes. Gohan explained that Frieza’s men had been waiting for them at the first location of the dragon ball and attacked them on sight. Only he and Bulma managed to just barely get away, and the soldiers had stolen her dragon radar. Neither Yamcha or Tien made it back to them.

While they worked on coming up with a new plan, Piccolo appeared to inform them that Frieza had doubled his efforts in finding Gohan and Goten.

“But _why?!_ What does he want with them?” Chi-Chi asked. Her hands were on Goten’s shoulders protectively, holding him close to her as if that alone would keep him safe.

“He wants to destroy anyone and anything that reminds him of Goku,” Piccolo said. His gaze never moved from Gohan’s face. “Gohan, The Lookout is destroyed. If there was any chance of saving Goku and Vegeta, it’s gone now. We can’t run from this fight forever, do you understand? You’re the only one here who can match your father’s power.”

“Right. It won’t be easy, though, not when Frieza has a whole army,” Gohan said. The two looked at Goten, but Chi-Chi shook her head and gripped her son’s shoulders a little tighter.

“I know what you’re going to say and the answer is _no_ ,” she said firmly.

“Mom, we don’t have a choice,” Gohan said gently. “Goten, you know we’re going to have to fight.”

“Y-Yeah, I know.” Chi-Chi tried to keep him from moving away from her but he stepped forward and turned to face her. “It’s okay, mom! I’ll get really strong and we’ll take out Frieza together.”

“But—”

“Trunks. You remember the fusion dance, correct?” Piccolo interrupted her. Trunks stood a little straighter and nodded. “Good. You’re both going to need it. Let’s go. We don’t have a lot of time and I’m sure both of you need the training.”

Chi-Chi wanted to scream — and well, she did do exactly that, but it did about as much as she expected. No one listened to her, and all she could do was watch them train in the backyard while she angrily prepared dinner. Bulma tried to offer some comfort, but that came in the form of assuring her their sons were strong enough to handle it and it only made her want to throttle the other woman. Didn’t she get it? Didn’t she feel the same way? It was never about whether or not they were strong enough — they were just _children_. She’d failed to spare her eldest son from the trauma he’d endured from his childhood with all the fighting he’d been dragged into. Now that Gohan was an adult, she accepted that he would do what he wanted despite how she felt about it, but Goten...he was still her little boy. He wasn’t even a teenager yet. She’d raised him more or less by herself for so long and tried to give him a real childhood that didn’t involve the same near-death experiences his brother had. She would rather have a living coward than a brave corpse for a son. 

“Ouch! Pan, that hurts,” Videl chastised her daughter. It distracted her from her thoughts, but she sighed wearily at the sight. While the boys trained outside, Pan was inside wreaking havoc on everyone else. Chi-Chi had managed to convince Pan to sit down and let her put her hair up into adorable little pigtails, but the little terror already let it get all messed up and her freshly washed clothes were disheveled and covered in dirt. She wound up her fist for another strike but Videl quickly blocked it. “ _No_ , Pan. We’re not training right now.”

Pan huffed and walked away, and less than thirty seconds later they heard Bulla’s high-pitched shriek from the next room. Videl hopped to her feet and rushed off to bring Pan outside with her, the girl squirming in her arms the whole way. “Train! Train, Bulla!”

“ _Saiyans_ ,” Videl muttered as she passed Chi-Chi. She’d never empathized with someone more.

Bulma hurried back inside to take care of Bulla, with a reluctant Trunks right behind her. She returned to the kitchen carrying her daughter, who continued to whine and whimper in her arms. “I want daddy,” she cried pitifully. “Mommy, I want daddy.”

“Man, all she does is cry nowadays,” Trunks said with a scoff. “Dad wouldn’t let her do that so much.”

“Well, dad’s not here right now, is he?” Bulma snapped. “She’s just scared, Trunks. You cried a lot too when your dad wasn’t around, you know! Why don’t you watch her for a little bit while I finish what I was working on.”

He made a face and Bulla cried a little louder. “But _mom!_ You heard Piccolo — I need to train with Goten!”

“No buts, Trunks! She’s your baby sister and an hour of spending time with her isn’t going to kill you!”

“Maybe _she_ should train too. I didn’t get to sit around and cry all day,” he grumbled. Bulma shot him a look and he snapped his mouth shut. He walked over and put his hand on Bulla’s back. “I’m sorry, Bulla. It’s okay if you need to cry.”

Chi-Chi considered them a moment before she spoke. “Just leave her with me. I’ll keep an eye on her and you two can do what you need.” Both of them looked more relieved than they were letting on, and Bulma settled Bulla down in a nearby chair before disappearing up the stairs with a quick thanks. Bulla watched Chi-Chi warily, but other than the occasional sniffle she didn’t make much noise at all. The girl sure was a weepy one.

“You don’t like training very much, do you?” Chi-Chi asked. Bulla shook her head. “Have you ever trained before?”

“Daddy,” she whimpered, but she said nothing else while Chi-Chi cooked. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her that the girl probably associated training more with her father than anyone else, and not having him around must’ve been distressing. But analyzing a toddler’s thought process wasn’t really her strong suit, and so Chi-Chi pushed the thought away while she finished preparing dinner.

She served Bulla first before calling everyone else in. As she set the bowl down in front of her, Chi-Chi caught sight of the napkin she’d been messing with. Bulla had taken her hair tie out and wrapped it around the napkin tightly so that it seemed to bear a passing resemblance to a toy. 

“Oh, you must really miss your dolls,” Chi-Chi said. Bulla’s bottom lip quivered and she nodded. “I bet you had a lot of them before we came here, huh? Well, we’ll find you one. Then maybe you can convince Pan to play nicely with you! What do you say? Would you like that?” It was the first time she’d seen Bulla smile all week.

Everyone else filtered in one by one and sat down to eat. Pan went to Bulla and the girls hugged warmly, melting away whatever friction they’d had just an hour ago as they sat babbling to one another. The rest of them finished their meal and the conversation turned back to planning when Bulma abruptly stopped talking and looked around.

“Wait — where did Trunks and Goten go?” she asked. 

“They were practicing the fusion dance last time I saw,” Gohan said. “They’re probably waiting it out.”

“Hold on! You let them _fuse_ and didn’t keep an eye on them?!” Bulma said, standing up quickly. She rounded on both Piccolo and Gohan. “You know how impulsive they are! What if they thought they could go take on Frieza on their own?! Did you even consider that?!”

“W-Well no,” Gohan admitted, glancing at Piccolo. “But they wouldn’t be _that_ reckless...right?”

It was Chi-Chi’s turn to be enraged. “What?! Are you serious, Gohan?! How irresponsible! What on earth were you thinking?!”

“We’ll go find them,” Piccolo said quickly. “Come on, Gohan.”

But just as they reached the door, a thundering crash rattled the apartment. Chi-Chi hurried to the window with the others and her eyes widened with fear. Dozens of circular pods dropped out of the sky and landed in the nearby town, smashing into buildings as they went. “Th-They must’ve picked up on their power level!” Bulma yelled. “We have to find them and go!”

Chi-Chi rushed to pack what few things they still had with Videl and Bulma’s help. Gohan and Piccolo had taken off in search of Gotenks. Suddenly, Videl started yelling, and when Chi-Chi went to investigate, she found her daughter-in-law looking frantically all over the living room. “Chi-Chi, Pan’s gone! I can’t find her anywhere!”

“Bulla too!” Bulma shouted as she ran down the stairs. “Where could they have gone?!” Videl ran outside and immediately leaped into the air to search for them while Chi-Chi and Bulma tore the apartment apart.

“You don’t think they followed the boys, do you?” Chi-Chi said, trying to keep the fear from showing on her face. The two women didn’t hesitate to take off in the direction all the others had gone, but both were knocked back by a massive explosion directly in front of them. Chi-Chi hit the wall hard, and the last thing she remembered seeing before it all went black was a tall, imposing form looming over her.

When she opened her eyes, sunlight overwhelmed her vision, causing her to flinch away from it. She squeezed her eyes shut and sat up slowly, one hand going up to clutch her throbbing head. Her hair brushed her shoulders and she glanced around wearily.

“Mom!” Goten’s voice was a relief to hear, but it was like a sharp knife going straight into her brain. “Mom, you’re okay!” She felt his arms wrap around her and she hugged him back instinctively. “I was so worried. I’m so sorry, mom, I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again! We just wanted to get dolls for the girls, so they’d stop yelling all the time. But there was a contest going on, a-and we got a little carried away so we—”

“Slow down, Goten,” she said. “Is everyone okay? How did...” The look on his face stopped her short. She’d seen that expression before, except it was on Gohan’s face years and years ago. “ _What happened?_ ” 

“They...they attacked the whole town. We were gonna fight them, but there were too many of them so we were gonna run...only...” 

Chi-Chi looked around. There was a tent nearby, but other than Goten she didn’t see anyone else. “Where is everyone?”

Goten looked like he was on the verge of tears. “P-Piccolo...he let us escape. But...but Pan and Videl got caught.” Chi-Chi was on her feet in an instant. She ignored the wave of nausea that came with her head spinning and took a few shaky steps before Goten grabbed her hand to stop her. “Mom, wait!”

“Where is Gohan? Tell me he didn’t go after them! He can’t! It’s obviously a—”

“A trap. I know.” She turned to see Gohan standing outside the larger tent. He looked ragged, haunted, like the weight of the entire world was sitting on him. “I know, mom. They took them back to Satan City. Frieza’s...he’s waiting for me.”

“Videl and Pan...Gohan, you know what he’s going to do,” she said. It broke her heart to say it, to even acknowledge it in any way. Her granddaughter meant everything to her — but so did her _son_. It was tearing her apart just thinking about it.

“He offered a deal. My life for theirs.”

Her heart jumped up into her throat. “No! He’s lying, Gohan, you know he is! You heard what Piccolo said — he’ll just kill you all!”

“What else can I do? If there’s even a _chance_ that I can save them... Mom, I have to.”

Emotion bubbled in her chest. Anger and desperation and fear and sorrow all at once. Goten said something, made a suggestion she didn’t quite hear over the sound of her own thoughts rushing through her mind. She couldn’t stand it. “You can’t save everyone, Gohan! Y-You’ll just get yourself killed!”

He was undeterred. “I have to try. I have to make Piccolo’s sacrifice mean something. It’s what dad would’ve done.”

“Your dad is an idiot!” She didn’t believe that, not really, but she would’ve said anything to stop her son. “Don’t do this, Gohan, _please!_ We can find another way!”

He didn’t listen to her, no matter how much she yelled. And believe it — she yelled and she yelled, but it didn’t matter. He took off without her, left her to watch until he disappeared in the distance. Goten cried. Trunks cried. Bulma cried. Bulla cried — kami did that girl _cry and cry_ , so much that it drove Chi-Chi mad some days. Everyone cried all the time, but Chi-Chi didn’t. She _wouldn’t_. She’d grown sick of crying. Instead, she waited. Just like she always did.

Three days later, Krillin and 18 showed up with their daughter Marron. They told her Frieza killed Pan and Videl, just like she knew he would. They told her Gohan died fighting, just like she’d always feared he would. They told her they were sorry, just like everyone else did. All she had left of her family was Goten now, and she swore from then on that no one would touch him. Not Frieza, not his stupid soldiers, not _anyone._

A month later and she’d made good on her promise. One by one, everyone had gone in some way or another. Kame House was destroyed. Fire Mountain was ruined again. The cities were transformed by Frieza’s rule, the towns left to fend for themselves while the world was reshaped around them. And their friends...their friends were changed for the worse. Yamcha returned only to betray them. Marron, Bulla, and Trunks had been taken as a result of his turncoat, and Bulma turned herself over to Frieza’s Forces shortly after. But thanks to her, she’d led his men straight to Chi-Chi and Goten, nearly dooming them to their graves before Goten managed to fight them all off and they escaped into the forest. Chi-Chi swore she’d never forgive any of them.

As the days turned into weeks and the weeks rolled into months and years, Chi-Chi learned to steel herself against their harsh new world. Her son grew up, strong and capable just like his brother and father, but unlike them, he wouldn’t wind up with any fantasies about being the world’s savior. She wouldn’t let him throw his life away for a planet that wouldn’t even have the decency to remember his name or appreciate all the times he’d saved them before. He would live, and she would know that she’d done her duty as a mother. 

After all, it was all she had left.


End file.
